'Narrow version of Islam' has bred jihadi movements in Maldives: ex-President Nasheed

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the terrorist organization known globally for brutal execution of civilians, has deep ties in the Maldives, says former President Mohamed Nasheed.

Nasheed said this while describing crisis-level challenges in the Maldives, them being land grab – primarily driven by the government’s agreements with China and extremist ideologies within society.

He said in an interview to writer Aaquib Khan, published on Tokyo-based magazine The Diplomat, that the terrorist organization has become ‘has embedded themselves in strategic positions within the state’.

“The deep state has an understanding with Mr. Yameen to maintain him in power, so he has found that to be an absolutely possible way of remaining in power” Nasheed said about incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.

Nasheed further said, about opposition partner Adhaalath Party, that Maldives has a history of ‘Wahhabism’, a conservative branch of Sunni Islam, and that such elements within society must be embraced, and brought into the ‘mainstream fold’.

“I think we must understand we are not of the same ideology, there are areas where we depart, but I think for this period in time we must work together” he said.

Nasheed’s comments about jihadist movements in the Maldives reflects existing patterns in Maldives, where law enforcement investigations have implicated local companies for acting as recruitment agencies, an agreement under which the recruiter receives payment for linking potential militants to foreign organizations.

A number of individuals and groups have been recorded fighting in wars in Syria, and some have been caught en route to foreign battles and been deported back to the Maldives.

A number of Maldivian nationals have also been recorded fighting alongside militants of the Al-Nusra Front, an organization fighting against the Syrian government with ties to the Islamic State and Al-Qaeeda.

Extremist ideologies are found common among the youth, with the idea of local street gangs having such aspirations being a common bias. This bias is fed by such beliefs being preached in prisons, where religious texts are easy to acquire and widely distributed.

In 2017, local writer and freedom activist Yameen Rasheed was murdered in what has widely been described as a hate crime, and the most recent incident to trigger Maldives longstanding inter-societal difference over tolerating religiously motivated violence.

Maldives established a state policy against terrorism and violent extremism, only in 2016. The policy stipulates that study be conducted on the ‘scale and severity’ of terrorism.